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The Heidi Game or Heidi Bowl was a 1968 American Football League (AFL) game between the Oakland Raiders and the visiting New York Jets. The contest, held on November 17, 1968, was notable for its exciting finish, in which Oakland scored two touchdowns in the final minute to win the game 43–32. However, NBC, the game's television broadcaster, decided to break away from its coverage on the East Coast to broadcast the television film Heidi, which caused many viewers to miss the Raiders' comeback. In the late 1960s, few professional football games took longer than two and a half hours to play, and the three-hour time slot allotted to the Jets and Raiders was thought to be adequate. A high-scoring contest, together with a number of injuries and penalties for the two bitter AFL rivals, caused the game to run longer than usual. NBC executives had originally ordered that Heidi begin at 7:00 p.m. EST, but then decided to allow the game to air to its conclusion. However, communicating this revised plan to the technicians running NBC's master control proved impossible – as 7 p.m. approached, NBC's switchboards were jammed by viewers phoning to inquire about the night's schedule, preventing the planned change from being communicated. Heidi began as scheduled, preempting the final moments of the game and the two Oakland touchdowns in the eastern half of the country, to the outrage of viewers. Response to the pre-emption by viewers and other critics was negative; the family members of several Jets players were unaware of the game's actual conclusion, while NBC received further criticism for its poor timing in displaying the final score of the game during the Heidi movie. NBC's president Julian Goodman formally apologized for the incident. The Jets and Raiders met again on December 29 in New York in the AFL Championship Game, with the Jets winning 27–23. Two weeks later, they defeated the Baltimore Colts of the National Football League (NFL) in Super Bowl III. In the aftermath of the incident, NBC installed special "Heidi phones", with a connection to a different telephone exchange from other network phones, to ensure that network personnel could communicate under similar circumstances. The game also had an influence on sports broadcasting practices; the future National Football League would contractually stipulate that all game telecasts be shown to their conclusion in the markets of the visiting team, while other major leagues and events adopted similar mandates. In 1997, the Heidi Game was voted the most memorable regular season game in professional football history. Background Jets–Raiders rivalry When the Jets played the Raiders, it wasn't a rivalry. It was a war. The Jets and Raiders were founding members of the American Football League; both teams began to play in 1960, the Jets under the name Titans of New York. The two teams had little success in their early years, playing so poorly that both the Titans and Raiders were allowed to draft players from other AFL teams following the 1962 season. In 1967, the Jets, under the guidance of coach Weeb Ewbank and third-year quarterback Joe Namath, posted their first winning record at 8–5–1. Oakland, on the other hand, won the Western Division in 1967 with a 13–1 mark under coach John Rauch and then the AFL Championship Game over the Houston Oilers, 40–7, but fell to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl II. Both teams were seen as likely contenders for the 1968 AFL Championship. The two teams did not play in the same division. However, each AFL team played all other teams in the league each year, allowing the Raiders and Jets to forge a bitter rivalry. In 1963, Oakland general manager (later owner) Al Davis traded guard Dan Ficca to New York during training camp, without mentioning to Ewbank (who was also the Jets' general manager) that Ficca would not be released from his military service for another six weeks. In 1966, with less than a minute to go and the Raiders leading at the new Oakland Coliseum, 28–20, Jets left tackle Winston Hill predicted to Namath in the huddle that the man he was blocking, Ben Davidson, would rush on the next play, leaving the Raiders exposed to a draw play. Namath called the draw, and handed the ball off to running back Emerson Boozer for 47 yards and a touchdown. After a Jets two-point conversion, the game ended in a 28–28 tie, and an embittered Davidson stated, "I'll get even. They still have to play us next year." They did, twice. In Week 4, the Jets defeated the Raiders at Shea Stadium, 27–14; this was the Raiders' only regular season loss. In Week 14, each team's 13th game, the teams met again, in Oakland. Sportswriter Paul Zimmerman said of the second 1967 Jets–Raiders game: The 1967 game was one of the most vicious in Jet history. Namath was slugged to the turf; he was hit late, punched in the groin. They aimed for his knees, tried to step on his hands ... And Davidson got Namath. He got him on a rollout, with a right that started somewhere between Hayward and Alameda. It knocked Namath's helmet flying, and broke his jaw, but Namath didn't miss a play, and he threw for 370 yards and three TD's in that 38–27 loss. Davidson stated about his play in the Oakland victory, "I don't think my tackle broke Namath's cheekbone. Not that I care ... Namath says that he's been beat up worse by girls. He's asking for it again." The Jets loss to the Raiders in 1967 knocked New York out of a tie for first place in their division – the AFL East was won by the Houston Oilers. In the 1968 season, the Jets, Raiders, San Diego Chargers, and Kansas City Chiefs established themselves as the leading AFL teams. Going into Week 11 of the season, each had lost only two games; the Chiefs, who had not yet had a bye week, had eight wins, the others seven. In an era with no wild card teams, the Raiders needed a victory over the Jets in Week 11 to avoid falling a game and a half behind the Chiefs in the AFL West – finishing second, however good their record, would end their season. The Jets, on the other hand, would clinch at least a tie for the AFL East title with a victory over the Raiders in their only regular season meeting. Depending on the results of other games, the Jets could win the division if they beat the Raiders, gaining the right to host the AFL Championship Game, the winner of which would play the NFL champion in the Super Bowl. The ill-feeling of previous years was resurrected by an immense blown-up photograph, posted at Raider headquarters, of Davidson smashing Namath in the head. The photographed play was said to have broken the quarterback's jaw (though Namath stated he had broken it on a tough piece of steak, and some claim it was Raiders defensive end Ike Lassiter who injured Namath). Although the poster, which had been placed by Davis, was removed before the game, word of this "intimidation through photography" reached the Jets in New York. Namath, interviewed by reporters, stated that he liked the R.... Discover the Ken Rappoport popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Ken Rappoport books.